Further job cuts announced at Bombardier

Bombardier has announced there are to be a further 95 redundancies at its Northern Ireland base.

It is understood the job losses are not related to the aerospace firm’s trade dispute in the United States which earlier this week prompted British PM Theresa May to ask US President Donald Trump to intervene.

In February last year the aerospace firm announced it was to shed more than 1,000 jobs from its Northern Ireland operations.

Davy Thompson, Unite Regional Coordinating Officer, said: “We are very disappointed with this news. This is another blow to the Bombardier workforce in Belfast and comes in the wake of wider concerns over the ongoing trade dispute with Boeing.

“The rationale offered by management is that this has been brought about by the outsourcing of IT and the need to reduce staff in functional areas. We do not agree with their case and we are calling on them to lift the threat of redundancies at this time.”

In a separate development, Unite said they had a very positive meeting with DUP leader Arlene Foster on Thursday.

Mr Thompason said the meeting focussed on how the DUP could ensure that Theresa May’s Conservative government would maximise pressure on Boeing to withdraw their case against Bombardier which is based on allegations of inappropriate state-aid.